Shirley Fischler: Puzzles and horizons throughout life

Jigsaw puzzles (I hear younger generation saying, “Jigsaw puzzles, what are they?”) and crossword puzzles are my constant distraction as I try to survive the onslaught of chemo and its side effects.

The love of jigsaw puzzles goes way back in the family history. There was nearly always a partially-completed jigsaw puzzle somewhere in my Grandma’s house.

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Whenever I visited or stayed over at Grandma and Grandad’s house there were rituals I always performed when I arrived. If it was summer, I headed immediately to Grandma’s raspberry patch, sat down and started eating!

Once inside, I headed for the big bathroom, just to smell the Lifebuoy Soap! My paternal grandparents were the only people I knew who actually used that soap brand and I loved the smell. Plus Lifebuoy was an attractive orangey-peachy color that I also liked.

Having gorged on raspberries and smelled the soap, I next headed into the living room and dining room to see if there was a jigsaw puzzle underway. There nearly always was.

My favorite jigsaws were – and still are – of the sea and boats, or castles. And this is where “horizons” come into play.

When doing a jigsaw puzzle I always try and find the edge pieces first, putting together the framework of the puzzle. Then I look for horizons.

You all know what a horizon is: the place where the sky meets the land; the place one looks to for guidance and direction. So, I would next look for any and all pieces having a bit of sky meeting land. Pretty soon the outline and shape of the interior took form.

I would then look for any other horizons – water touching land, the waterline on ships or boats, the line between forest and meadow, or building and grass. Jigsaw puzzles often are chukabluck full of what I call horizons

Then I would begin what I always think of as the boring part of jigsaw puzzles: filling in the blank, blue sky or the dark shadowed part of a puzzle. All the pieces tend to look alike and I find it very, very tedious. Sometimes I even threaten to toss the whole thing into its box and to Heck with the boring parts! But I never do -- it’s important to finish a job.

I just completed a puzzle of the French chateau, Chambord, which I had visited with my husband way back in 1969. It was a really fun puzzle to do because it had several horizons, not too much blank sky and lots of interesting color and activity spots.

The only problem now is … I have no more puzzles!

Shirley Fischler resides in Boiceville and New York City. Her column appears Sunday in the Life section.